CAA Certified Operator 1643

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a drone an a UAS?The term drone is used commonly to describe the flying camera platforms you see being operated and comes from the military use of these devices.

A more correct term would be a Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) or Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS)

They all mean the same but we prefer to use and refer to our systems as UAS.Do you need to hire a CAA registered operator?Absolutely yes. To commercially operate a UAS within the UK you need to be granted “Permission for Arial Work” (PFAW) from the CAA and be a certified RPQ or BNUC-s pilot, operating a UAS in the correct weight category for your certification. This is your guarantee that the operator is a skilled pilot and can operate safely within the UK. Without this the operator cannot obtain 3rd party liability or equipment insurance for your job. This would mean that they are working illegally and could be subject to prosecution. You do not want to be associated with this.

What are our qualifications?Project41 Ltd has RPQ-s and BNUCs certified pilots and have been assessed to operate UAS in both categories of up to 7kg and 7-20kg in all flight modes. We also have “permissions for aerial work” granted by the CAA, you need both of these to legally carry out any type of commercial aerial work with a UAV within the UK.

Are we insured?Yes we are insured, we have public liability insurance to the value of £5 million, UAS filming is classified as ‘other filming’ in London and now requires £5 million public liability insurance.

How close can we fly to/ over people?We adhere to CAA rules and regulations. This means we do not fly any closer than 50 meters from people (unless they’re in “our control”). If the crowd is over 1,000 people, we cannot be any closer than 150 meters.

How much does it cost to hire you?You will find rates in our Rates -Terms and Conditions page We do have to quote on all tasks, we appreciate that this can be frustrating at times but all tasks will have different requirements for equipment, location, safety, legal and environmental factors. We will always endeavour to be competitive on our pricing giving you the highest level of service on professional grade equipment operated by trained and certified pilots.

Can we fly in cities and towns?We can fly in congested areas, but this can take a few weeks to organise depending on what’s asked of us. Central London for example may take even longer as there’s a lot of paper work involved and there’s certain locations in central London that are restricted areas. We are also restricted to the size of the aircraft that we can fly within a congested area (i.e. it has to be under (7kg in weight). There is also no guarantee that the necessary permissions from all the various authorities will be given to fly within central London.

How far away and high can we fly?We operate within the regulations defined by the Civil Aviation Authority and the Air Navigation Order. The legal limits we can fly within the UK are up to 400 feet in altitude and 500 metres horizontal distance but we must always be within the pilot’s visual line of sight (VLOS). In reality it would be unlikely that we would need to exceed these limits for most tasks. If you require to work outside these distances, individual safety case forward to the CAA.

What weather conditions can we fly in?For best results and safety we need winds of 15mph or less to fly. We cannot fly in any kind of precipitation due to the electronic systems used by the UAS. We recommend scheduling weather contingency dates. In the lead up to each task we provide regular weather updates. 24hrs before or in advance of travel, we’ll confirm whether the conditions are good to go or not. If not, we will not charge you for that day and we set a contingency date. However if conditions are changeable we will assess the chances of being able to make a flight and you can choose whether to take the risk and have us on standby. In this instance if we are unable to fly at all you will be liable for our full fee.

Can we fly indoors?Yes we can fly indoors, from a flying point of view we can do this but we would need to consider additional client insurance.

Can we fly at night?Currently we do not fly at night.

Can we work outside of the UK?We can work outside of the U.K. There are some countries that it is not legal to fly a UAS and therefor we will not be able to operate in these countries. Operations abroad may take some extra time to organise. So therefore advanced notice should be given in order to help make this possible.

What is the flight duration?The average flight time ranges from 12 to 18 minutes depending on overall take off weight of the drone. This is also affected by the weather conditions and flying speed. So long as we have access to power to organise a charging station we can fly for most of the day. We do require a small amount of time between flights to change batteries and carry out technical and safety post flight checks to keep everything running smoothly and safely.